


Ain't Misbehavin'

by HovercraftOfEels



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M, also i feel like i should personally write an apology letter to lana beniko for this., honestly there should probably be more porn., i am sorry for it mostly being feelings but these two kind of wreak me., i tried very hard to just have this be porn but feelings got in there too. mea cupla.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 08:03:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HovercraftOfEels/pseuds/HovercraftOfEels
Summary: Theron has been dancing around a particular sort of reunion, and the Commander just isn't having it anymore.





	Ain't Misbehavin'

“We’ve got a problem.”

The hair was growing back in slowly, which Theron was pretty thankful for since keeping the lines shaved had been a damn nightmare. _Never, ever join another cult, Shan_. But he stood, frozen in front of the caf machine with wide, confused eyes because couldn’t they have a single week of calm before some fresh new hell came down on their heads?

Unless the Commander, leaning against the countertop with her duster jacket on and blasters at her side with a look on her face that was damn near unreadable, meant between the two of them, and his stomach twisted in familiar guilt. Maybe she’d worked through it, maybe things weren’t okay after all, maybe she wanted him to leave the Alliance, leave Odessen, leave _her_ behind for good this time.

No, that wasn’t it either. Her eyes were laughing, at least. That just made Theron confused again.

“Do we?” His voice came out way, way higher than normal, and he cleared his throat, restating the question with almost comical baritone. He wasn’t Arcann, after all. “Er, do we?”

She was enjoying this. Eh. She’d earned it.

Ari flipped her hair over one shoulder, giving him a look that probably meant something important but that he had absolutely no context for. It looked like she was starting to take pity on him at least, because she shoved off the counter and walked towards him. With intent.

Theron swallowed, trying to remind himself that he was a highly trained agent who could keep it together when the literal fate of the galaxy rested on it. So why was that glimmer of a smirk in his fiancée’s eyes unsettling him so much?

“See, the problem is that you’ve been back for a solid week now, and even though I can see you staring through my armor almost all the time, sharing my bed every night,” Ari took on that lazy sort of tone that he was completely used to when she was teasing him, but felt that odd sort of tension all the same, “But at this point the only thing you’ve put in me is your tongue a couple of times, and even that hasn’t been in quite the right place.”

Theron Shan almost passed out. There was only so much blood in the human body, and at this point none of it was left for his brain. He wasn’t a teenager anymore, and he had no right to get that kriffing hard that kriffing fast. But Ari wasn’t through with him, instead sliding up against him with _intent_ , and Theron knew he was doomed.

At least, in the fun way.

Her fingers walked slowly up the column of his throat, eyes now alive with playful mischief, because he could tell she had enjoyed side-blinding him. A lot. Hell, she’d earned it, and Theron wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her closer, a teasing kiss to her lips.  She might as well feel her handiwork, and that had just been with _words_.

“You know, you could have just asked,” he teased, although as soon as he did Theron wished he could take it back, because some of the joy dimmed in Ari’s eyes.  She shook her head, although pulled him closer in case he got any funny ideas.

“I wasn’t sure if --- oh hell, I don’t know, Theron. I didn’t know what happened to you while you were gone all those weeks. I didn’t know what they did to you.” She was looking over his shoulder, not at anything in particular, but he knew that trick. She did that to keep from crying. One of her hands tightened in the fabric of his shirt, and she buried her head against his neck for a moment.

“I thought maybe you needed time. But then I caught you staring at my ass in the refresher this morning and just figured enough was enough,” she managed against his shirt, a little bit of laughter back in her tone and he could breathe again, still holding her against him as tightly as he could.

“They didn’t do anything to me. I mean, I won’t pretend that Syndic Zenta didn’t read way, way too much into everything I told her,” he’d already been honest with Ari about the chiss who had been sure that he was flirting with her, which he absolutely had not been, “Or that I almost got caught more than once by one of the Heralds looking at a holo of you pleading for me to come back, but nothing like that. I swear it.”

Ari looked up, almost sadly because of course he was thinking in terms of things _he_ had done while he was gone, ignoring that her worry was something they might have done to him. She reached up, kissing him softly.  “Theron, you saved our lives by going undercover. We had no idea what we were dealing with, and I have forgiven you. Just --- forgive yourself too? Please?” She scowled suddenly. “Stars, this is not exactly the tone I was going for here, let me try again.”  She fluttered her eyes up at him, almost comedically. “I want you, Theron. Don’t make me beg.”

There was an animal part of his brain that _absolutely_ wanted to make her beg, but it was lost in the immediacy of her request. Theron claimed Ari’s lips with a hunger he had clamped down for months, pulling her against him so he could pick her up with ease, trying to figure out which hard surface in her office was going to work best for this. Their room was just way, way too far away.

And neither of them were particularly patient people.

Ari had already stripped his jacket off his shoulders, the soft red leatheris a welcome return after his grey duster. She’d kept it, found it where he’d stashed it in their closet, a thought that still threatened to overwhelm him if he let it. He didn’t want to let it. Not tonight.

Dusk was settling around Odessen as Theron finally found skin, the old wound through her stomach yet another grim reminder of how damn lucky they were to be _here, now_ , _alive._ He pushed that thought aside just as ruthlessly as the rest, because she didn’t need him falling into a feedback loop of guilt and worry.

Ari deserved better than always having to be there to catch him.

His lips crashed back into hers, trying to push out the thoughts that always threatened to steal these moments from him, from them. Theron knew she was tired of make choices for the galaxy, tired of having every decision cascade into fifty other ones to be made, to be judged, to be acted upon. She had tried to be just and merciful and still ended up with a cult of personality trying to kill her. With a betrayal cutting straight to her soul, even if it had been entirely for show.

He’d never forgive himself for the train. Even if he still couldn’t come up with an alternative, he couldn’t forget the image of her face, staring at him with naked grief as he told her that at least her death would be quick.

Ari seemed to sense that disquiet creeping into his mind, and she slid one hand into his still thin hair, thumb brushing his cheekbone, forcing him to look at her.

“Theron.” It’s gentle, not a command. Her eyes are bright in the twilight; the night cycle lighting hadn’t kicked in yet. “Theron, it’s all right. We’re here now. And it’s time to finally celebrate that fact.”

In spite of his dark turn of thoughts, he had to smile back at her. Stars, he loved this woman.

“Yes, ma’am.”

+++

It took him more time than he’d like to admit to figure out how to get her out of her new armor. She had updated it since the last time he’d done this, and there were buckles placed in locations that had to be chosen strictly to punish him. But he took his time, lips covering the skin that he exposed, carefully examining every inch because there were scars he wasn’t there for, times he hadn’t been there to watch her back. It was a poor sort of atonement, but the quiet noises of approval she made were welcome all the same.

But Ari wasn’t that patient of a woman, and before he knew it she had stripped him of the shirt and trousers he had been in, making her own thorough inspection of his body. Theron found himself oddly nervous, especially when she spent so much time with her fingers hovering over the new, raw wound where he had been stabbed on Nathema. Theron felt vaguely guilty about that, which he knew wasn’t rational, but Ari knelt before him, pressing kisses to the injury, grinning with something near delight as his stomach flexed in reaction.

It was involuntary, but she always seemed to enjoy that.

“I guess we match now,” Ari said softly as she let her fingers touch the injury, almost like she was worried she might hurt him if she fussed at it too much but couldn’t pull away just yet. Theron could see the still bright scar through her stomach of where Arcann had stabbed her so long ago. He felt like such a hypocrite for still being angry at the other man for what he’d done, even after he’d turned around and done almost the same shit. It didn’t matter that his reasons had been to protect her, not when he had dreamed of her face as she watched him betray her every night for months.

The dream still happened, the one he told her about when they walked through the grassy fields, when he returned to Odessen after so many months away. Theron would wake up and cling to her in the dark, because sometimes the dream ended with him sinking to the ground, bleeding the chest while she left him there, dying.

Theron knew better, though. Even now, Ari could see him getting trapped in his own head again, the place he’d lived for months while he did everything he could to protect her. The nightmare belonged far from this moment, and she stood on her toes to draw him back to her, in this moment, surprisingly patient.

“Breathe, Theron,” she murmured against his lips and he remembered how, all at once.

She’d said the same thing most nights, when he woke up shaking and found her arms around him, her eyes still forgiving, reminding that it’s just a dream, that he was home now, safe and sound.

Stars. What a woman.

Her fingers made quick work of his trousers, and Theron sucked in a breath as her fingers brushed his cock teasingly. She stood back up to claim his lips, standing on her toes and wrapping her arms back around his shoulders.

Theron pulled himself back to this moment, pressing against her with a low groan in the back of his throat, arms wrapped around her. There was a counter behind them, and he lifted her up with ease, almost embarrassed at how eager, how hard he was against her stomach, but ignored it, leaning down instead to kiss her, his hand cupping her cheek, thumb brushing down her throat.

Ari reached up, tugging him down rougher, harder, her impatience finally reaching a tipping point. If he was honest, he liked it when she took charge. Theron had a feeling that after all these years, she knew it too.  She smiled a little as she lined up their hips, but he didn’t have to be shown what to do.

It had been too long.

It wasn’t as gentle as he’d have liked it to be, not when they were standing up, still half clothed, her moans and his gasps echoing off the computers in her office, all stark metal and glass. Theron had an idle plan a few days ago of surprising her in their room, but he’d lost his nerve. She deserved a bed, at the very least, but he couldn’t find it in him to complain. Not when Ari was whimpering in his ear as she clung to his shoulders, not as his hips arched against hers almost frantically, not with her nails digging into his skin. Theron couldn’t complain about anything, not as she tightened around his cock with a cry of his name that some part of his brain told him could probably be heard in the hallway. Theron just replied with a soft whimper against her lips, one hand fisted in her hair.

And they remembered how to breathe, together.

Ari shifted a little on him, arching her hips up to meet his, knowing she was getting close and refusing to let him hold himself back any more. With one hand, she cupped the back of his head, eyes warm but dark with desire, her hips bucking a little.

“Come with me, Theron.” It wasn’t a request. How could he refuse?

He lost track of time, the galaxy shattering to light and sound around them, his arms around her as he leaned against the desk, hoping to hell his legs didn’t give out on him. Theron pressed kisses to her shoulder, her cheek, whatever he could reach while Ari did the same. The simple ring he’d gotten her caught the dying light from the windows, and he couldn’t help a breathy laugh.

He was happy. And letting himself be happy was always a little bit terrifying, but right this second, everything felt perfect.

Until the door opened.

“Oh, for kriff’s sake!” The utterly proper, straight from the heart of the Empire Kaas accent snapped around them, and Theron realized that might be the first time that he had heard Lana Beniko curse. The door slid closed almost immediately, but the damage was done by that point.

Theron was mortified. Ari didn’t stop laughing, even as they curled in their bed finally, warming up for round two. He insisted that it wasn’t that funny, but the Commander disagreed and he didn’t have the heart to keep disagreeing.

It didn’t get better as his datapad pinged with a new message, and she picked it up to read it.

_Theron –_

_As pleased as I am that you two have fully reconciled, I would like to remind you that every door in the Odessen complex is equipped with a standard locking mechanism that even a child can use. For a remedial course in their use, I have attached an instruction guide to this letter, please do look it over. If I am ever forced to stare at your naked bum again, I can assure you that I will not be responsible for my actions._

_Again, very pleased for you both, but I will absolutely kill you if it happens again._

_Lana_

Ari threatened to print and frame the memo. Theron spent the next day or so trying to distract her, which might have been overkill, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

**Author's Note:**

> So, obviously 5.9 made me pretty damn happy but I felt like there was a particular element missing for our lovebirds that Bioware just couldn't quite show us, the cowards. I'm toying with writing out all of Ari's saga, just because I main my Sith Quizzie but my heart will always be with my smuggler. I hope you enjoy!


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